Pump­kin contest? It’s a zoo!

Gi­ant gourds were the main at­trac­tion at the Colum­bus Zoo and Aquar­ium yes­ter­day at the third-an­nual Jack Hanna’s Pump­kin Carv­ing Cham­pi­onship. Master carvers from across the na­tion came to show their skills, cut­ting de­signs into pump­kins and squash weigh­ing up­ward of 300 pounds.

The contest was di­vided into sec­tions: a peo­ple’s-choice carv­ing judged by zoo guests, a four-hour contest in which 3-D images were carved into a 300-pound pump­kin, and a six-hour pe­riod to cre­ate a sculp­ture us­ing one 300pound pump­kin and five nor­mal-size pump­kins.

Most com­peti­tors said they wait to see the pump­kin be­fore de­cid­ing what to carve.

“It all de­pends on the pump­kin, for me,” said Gus Smith­hisler of Marengo. “I pre­fer to carve what’s in the pump­kin and bring it out.”

In ad­di­tion to carv­ing pump­kins and squash, Smith­hisler, an en­gi­neer for the Ohio Depart­ment of Nat­u­ral Re­sources, grows them.

He and a friend pro­vided the gourds for the com­pe­ti­tion.

“They’re lo­cal. They’re brought in on a huge truck and un­loaded with a fork­lift,” event co­or­di­na­tor Jonathan Ho­tal­ing said. “That’s one of the things that makes this orig­i­nal, one of a kind.”

The event has be­come so popular that there’s a wait­ing list of carvers look­ing to com­pete. The contest used to be held dur­ing the zoo’s Fall Fes­ti­val, but this year it was moved to its own week­end.

“Be­cause of the lim­i­ta­tions we have with ac­quir­ing 500-pound pump­kins, we have to keep it to 10 peo­ple for right now,” Ho­tal­ing said, “but hope­fully in the fu­ture, if it keeps catch­ing on, we’ll find ways to grow it and make it even big­ger.”

Smith­hisler said he most en­joyed the look of amaze­ment on the faces of kids watch­ing him chip away at a squash he carved yes­ter­day to look like Smokey Bear.

“They’re here teach­ing the kids how you can take some­thing that’s com­pletely nat­u­ral and not that pretty and make art with it,” said Amanda Webb, 36, of Up­per Ar­ling­ton, who watched the carv­ing with her daugh­ters Made­line, 10, and Lil­lian, 9.